Sorry for the headline. I don’t know why they don’t just say it’s Vivek Ramaswamy.

To that end, I will accept Russian control of the occupied territories and pledge to block Ukraine’s candidacy for NATO in exchange for Russia exiting its military alliance with China. I will end sanctions and bring Russia back into the world market. In this way, I will elevate Russia as a strategic check on China’s designs in East Asia.

  • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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    Never thought I’d see somebody worse than trump so quickly.

    he also wants to remove federal regulatory and law enforcement agencies. Including, the IRS. Whose job it is… to you know… pay the government’s bills…

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      They are doing it on purpose. He’s 38 years old, no one is letting him near the presidency. But these over the top statements are intended to make some other candidate look like not the craziest guy in the room.

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          I was watching a review of the GOP debates by some US political junkies just last week and one of the hosts said that Vivek knows he doesn’t have a chance but is using this presidential run to get exposure for his planned foray into right wing talk show host. Something like Tucker or Alex Jones.

          Great bang for your buck with free news media advertising by pretending to run for president and saying crazy stuff.

          After hearing he wanted to start his own right wing talk show his character and mannerisms made so much more sense.

          Apologies for the facebook link (They start talking about him around the 14 min mark and the comment on his talk show plans is at 20 mins)
          https://www.facebook.com/abcplanetamerica/videos/3482537835297757

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              Chances are he doesn’t even believe the nonsense coming out of his own mouth, but society rewards these people with riches beyond their wildest imagination so they keep doing it.

          • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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            I was watching a review of the GOP debates by some US political junkies just last week and one of the hosts said that Vivek knows he doesn’t have a chance but is using this presidential run to get exposure for his planned foray into right wing talk show host. Something like Tucker or Alex Jones.

            or he wants to be VP.

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            Dude is worth like a billion dollars. Why would he want to be talk show host?

            Besides that the fact that running for pres, can theoretically be used as a springboard into conservative media, what was their argument?

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              What reason other than ego is needed by the wealthy? They don’t need to consider pros/cons like the rest of us do. You see the kind of following right wing talk show types build? I could very much see someone wanting that just because they can do it.

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            There’s a lot of competition. I mean he’s meek, so it isn’t always clear, but Mike Pence is fucking nuts.

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          Its basically the exact same method movie theatres use to sell overpriced popcorn…
          Not sure what that says about people but probably nothing good.

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        Considering one of his opponents tried to destroy the happiest place on earth, signed into law a law that allows people to kidnap kids, and worked as a torturer at gitmo, that is saying something

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        Plus he’s brown. With a foreign sounding name.

        The chances of Trumpy Republicans abandoning Dear Leader and voting en mass for an Indian looking guy are vanishingly small.

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        Eh I figure it’s just for attention. Rile up the base to get them out to vote.

        Anger is a pretty strong motivator if social media hasn’t shown you that already.

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      It’s like “conservatives” are actually compelled to make the worst, most unethical choice, every time…

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          No: conservatism is tribalism. It’s always been “well someone’s gotta be king.” That is the origin of the term, right back to the invention of the modern republic. It’s just hierarchy plus excuses.

          • oce 🐆@jlai.lu
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            Conservatism is about conserving the traditional practices and values. If the practice is tribalism, then it may be what is conserved, but it can be something else.

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              This has never been true. This is plain nonsense.

              Like declaring Mitch McConnell and Wolfe Tone must share values because they’re both “Republicans.” Words mean what they are used to mean. What conservatism means, in modern English, is monarchists denied a monarchy.

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                You can deny it if you want, but that’s what you’ll find in dictionaries and encyclopedias, which is what most people consider as the standard definition of a word.

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                  Dictionaries reflect use.

                  What people mean is always enforcing hierarchy.

                  That is the only consistent thread, within and between conservative movements worldwide. They want one guy in charge of everything and half the population fighting for scraps. On some level they do not believe society can function any other way.

                  The people who attempted to overthrow American democracy aren’t preserving a damn thing.

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      Are we going to have to do this every 4 years? Just roll the dice and risk some wholly unqualified asshole, somehow even worse that the former guy, becoming president so he or she can just shit on the people and the planet for the next 4 fucking years?

      I am so tired of this bullshit.

      • Sanity_in_Moderation@lemmy.world
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        Not forever. Now and probably 2028. The people they are appealing to are dying and are rapidly being replaced by the youth. By 2032 they won’t be enough to dominate an entire party. They will return to the fringe.

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          We’re at a point where they are so close to codifying their reign into our country’s laws that it will no longer matter if they have a majority or not.

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            They’ve already done so. Political gerrymandering, legislative subversion of direct democracy, political ejections from state legislatures, etc. The thing that kills me is that the Dems have not come out loudly and uniformly in favor of shit that would make a difference, like rank-choice voting, non-partisan redistricting, etc. Fuckers all around.

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          Until progressives move en masse to rural areas, this country is fucked. Gerrymandering is largely possible because you only need to go two feet outside of any urban area to be in a blood red sea of prideful ignorance and xenophobia.

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          Until we become the old assholes for not engaging enough into the ecological transition.

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        For the forseeable future? yes.

        Personally. I plan to go start a lunar colony, then mars, then jupiter. Build up a space civilization of enlightened scientists who… will tolerate my leadership because “well at least it’s not as bad as on earth.”

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          Enough scientists are feral enough to just throw someone out an airlock. That shit would rapidly devolve into some demented form of anarcho-syndacalism.

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            That shit would rapidly devolve into some demented form of anarcho-syndacalism.

            you assume that I’m not some tin pot dictator. I’m far from the last person you want to see in power… but I’m also far from the first. Although… that could make for a good story…

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      There’s a lot worse than Trump. Trump is dumb AF and is easily persuaded. I’m doubting that Trump ever actually came up with an idea of his own. He’s a puppet through and through.

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          He also came up with the name “Space Force” and they let him pick a new color scheme for Air Force One.

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            As absolutely cheesy as it is, I like Space Force and its Starfleet knockoff logo.

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      … but, but, but they’re the “true patriot” party! No one is more American than Republicans! 1!!

      /s

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    how anyone cant seem through this blatent foreign agent acting against your country is beyond me. watching in amazement from down under

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      Anyone with two functioning brain cells does see it. Unfortunately, there is an entire political party for people who don’t.

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      The alternative is that his words are bald faced lies and he believes he’s all but winking at the “adults in the room” that “of course he’ll never actually do this”.

      They’re both equally horrible, and sadly equally possible.

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      He’s at 5% of the vote in the Republican primary. He’s DOA in a general election.

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    Russia can’t even control it’s own military with success, how the fuck are they gonna challenge China and put them on check. Lol this fuckin puppet has the whole arm in him.

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    How the actual fuck are the Republicans not getting hammered in the polls?

    Americans have been brainwashed for decades with ‘communism bad’ propaganda, so it seems mind-boggling that Republicans are so willing to give the former Soviet Union any control over Ukrainian soil. Part of the reason we’ve been fighting back against Russia’s invasion with sanctions and equipment donations has been because they’ve been NATO’s ideological enemy for decades.

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        At this point being a Republican should be considered synonymous to being part of a conspiracy to commit treason and be treated as such.

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          This is why some kind of civil conflict is likely. Because they are and either we are going to live in their republican hell world or they are going to make the rest of the rest of.us kill them to stop it. It is likely bc they will escalate to killing.

      • Clbull@lemmy.world
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        So have I.

        I’m not even from the same continent and it hurts my head to think of how a party whose supporters are synonymous with highly patriotic rednecks are willing to continue supporting their team after they’ve shown a categorical willingness to sell out to the enemy.

        Like… I truly think some big corporation has put something in our food or drink that is making us terminally stupid.

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        A direct result of IRA/GRU/KozyBear(?), etc., disinfo and influence brainwashing social media campaigns.

        Social media is a hellofadrug to the poorly educated.

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      Because if the other team wants something it must be bad, so they oppose them. No matter how much they cut their nose they will spite their own face.

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      The Republicans are more or less split on this issue. With the Trumpians being isolationist and not wanting to meddle and the Mitt Romneys wanting to keep the war machine humming along.

      Nikki Haley, a Republican Romney-ist candidate at the RNC debates last week criticized Ramaswamy

      “You are choosing a murderer over an ally of the U.S"

      His response was

      “I wish you success on your future career on the boards of Lockheed and Raytheon,”

      If you look at certain polls, there are early signs that Americans may be slowly losing fervor for the war and less and less are supporting increasing aid to Ukraine - feeling that the US has done enough.

      Trump and his cronies / wannabes are likely betting on that sentiment becoming more widespread. And historically, they are probably right to bet on it. People eventually get war fatigue. However, it could take a very long time before that leads to an actual policy change. Look how long Vietnam or Afghanistan lasted. These things can go on for decades before the government pulls the plug - even through years of public dissatisfaction.

      So who knows? The Republicans seem to be having a little war of their own

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    Dont give this stupid ass a platform. Just dont talk about him. All the negative press is what gave credence to Trump by the anti crowd.

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    Republicans at this point are just fighting over who will be the worst and most fucked up and evil mother fucker. They are basically debating over who is going to fuck their people (and the rest of the world in this instance) harder. I can never understand why anyone would vote for these goons.

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      You know whats the funny thing here?

      Republicans at this point are just fighting over who will be the worst and most fucked up and evil mother fucker?

      Thats what attracts the republican voters.

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        That’s fucking sad, though. An average worker from west Virginia who is barely scraping by even though they’re working over time and a shit job should be voting for someone that will help them, not make their life even worse.

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    Of course, because Republicans get money from Russia to betray their country. What’s sad is that it doesn’t take much.

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    Russia literally invaded Ukraine with the full force of their army and this dude is willing to give up Ukrainian territory to the Russians. Meanwhile I’m America immigrants come here looking for jobs and the Republicans call that an invasion. I don’t think they know what an “invasion” is.

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    These debates seem more and more like massive focus groups. They get the non-contenders to say preposterous things with two goals: see what sticks and propagate lies.

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      It’s the one part of Idiocracy we’re actually performing.

      Elections are no longer about who’s the best for the job. It’s now a popularity contest. Intelligence and capability mean nothing anymore.

      And honestly I partially blame Obama for being to relaxed with the memes. Yeah it was funny af but it opened the gates to what we have now.

      It’s like how satire can quickly become real. So… Thanks Obama…

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        Elections are no longer about who’s the best for the job.

        They were never about that. It was about which person will get my group what I want. The country could do fine for a long time without any political leadership. The mechanisms of government would just continue to operate. Look at the last admin, how many empty posts were there. I bet your trash still got picked up, I bet you still had to pay taxes, etc.

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        Modernizing engagement by going on talk shows and using social media is smart. The message is what makes the difference. Republicans stopped caring about a message that progressed the country around Bush jr. Ever since then been a decline into tribalism and gaslighting. At least Obama ran on something positive.

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      Right or not, there’s a good chance Ukraine would not be standing today without US support. Of course other countries are also giving aid but US tops the chart by a large margin. see here $76 billion in aid as of June this year for a country whose GDP in 2020 was about $150 billion. They’re running at a massive deficit and barely holding on as it is.

      Should the US decide to go to Ukraine and say “hey, we’re cutting you off. should probably surrender with these xyz conditions” they would be forced to seriously consider their position.